After leaving the Elephant Seals and the coast, we headed inland through Templeton to our destination tonight at Atascadero.

We had no phone coverage all along the Coast Road but managed to get some at the seals. A quick phone call to Jim and Regina to let them know we were still coming. They were waiting and had the grill fired up ready.

Finally arrived at 7:50 pm to met by our hosts Jim and Regina Neel, one of their sons, Steve, his wife Leslie and their kids Brenan, Dillon and Luke and the neighbors Harry and Jan.

Jim is still working at the San Luis Obispo Fire Department, Regina is driving a local bus. Steve and Leslie are paramedics for the local private Ambulance Service. Harry and Jan are retired – Harry worked for 30 years at Universal Studios before retiring nad had some interesting stories including both f them having a cameo role in Jaws (will need to check out the film again).

Another great night chatting and catching up while the kids bonded with some more American kids.

It was early in the morning before hitting the hay but tomorrow is a chill out day at the Neels. 🙂

After leaving the cliffs of Monterey, it was time to check out the Elephant Seals near Cambria.

Back near Davenport, you could go into a State Park, pay $7 for parking and walk for 3 miles to the seals or near Cambria you just pull off to the side of the road and they are just there.

The seals are a big seal and there are plenty of them. They make some intersting noises and regularly fighting between themselves. Otherwise they just lay around and sleep.

We took the Highway 1 from Half Moon Bay down to Cambria which was only a couple of hundred km’s but when you add in a lot more traffic and plenty to see along the way it takes about 5 hours to travel.

The scenery is spectacular with steep cliffs and ravines, mountains, beaches as well as the Redwood forest at Big Sur.

We made a few stops along the way having lunch at a little diner at Davenport.

The cliffs and mountains eventually gave way to rolling hills and beaches and the going was a little faster.

Geocaches for the day:

• GCVOHZ – Benchmark Z
• GCPAYB – Greyhound Rock
• GC1GXNX – Help Help
• GC1K63E – Stranded on a foriegn country

Another perfect day in Benicia but we were bidding farewell to our stay in Northern California and to Joanna and Jiana.

After some breakfast and packing the car, we were on our way towards the Coast and through Santa Cruz and Monterey to Atascadero.

No problems with crazy driving on the Freeways this morning but we did make a wrong exit turn and ended up doing a quick tour of downtown Oakland.

As we left San Francisco and headed to the Coast the weather started to get a little overcast.

Geocaches for the morning:

• GC94A4 – Drunken Sailor
• GCWB9C – Benicia Fire Museum